About

A Jew who lives in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. I curl, and I work as a software developer. When I’m not programming, and not spending time with my family, (and when the season is right,) I enjoy curling out of the Potomac Curling Club in Laurel, Maryland.

As mentioned in my introduction, the purpose of this blog is to help me expand my Hebrew vocabulary. I, like so many Jews in the Diaspora, learned enough Hebrew to daven, to get around with basic verbal skills in Israel… and not a lot more than that. My goal, though, is to be able to actually function conversationally, to watch movies in the language, to read the newspaper without a dictionary sitting beside me (too much). And if I’m looking to try to expand my horizons, I figure there’s others who are doing the same thing. (The biggest obstacle I’m facing at the moment is the lack of an ulpan in my area, but if I and others can find enough to read online…)

So. Follow along on the journey of “יונתן מתניה ומלה היום” – Yonatan Matanyah and the Word of the Day.

If you’re on Duolingo or Memrise, feel free to follow me – I’m “tjcinmaryland” on both sites.

Hi! Would you be interested in writing a guest post for a series of posts called Perspective Collective for Language Boat? I am asking several language bloggers I admire the same six questions. My goal is to get a variety of perspectives and methods on language learning. I have a very specific learning style and approach. I’d like to offer Language Boat readers a wider range of learning expertise and introduce them to blogs and resources they may not yet know about. Of course if you agree to guest post I will link back to your blog and introduce you as a guest blogger with a mini bio and photo. Here’s a link to the series: Perspective Collective

The following are the six questions I am asking.

What language(s) do you know?
What language(s) are you learning?
What is your language learning style?
What approaches / methods do you use?
How do you stay motivated?
What is your advice to language learners just getting started?